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President Barack Obama’s nominee to head up the agency in charge of airport security withdrew Wednesday morning after a long showdown with a Republican senator opposed to allowing air security screeners to unionize.

The nominee to head the Transportation Security Administration, Erroll Southers, also became entangled in a flap over a misstatement about an episode that led to his censure at the FBI two decades ago.

On Wednesday, Southers said his candidacy had fallen victim to the “partisan climate” in Washington.

“It is clear that my nomination has become a lightning rod for those who have chosen to push a political agenda at the risk of the safety and security of the American people,” Southers said in a statement released by the White House. “This partisan climate is unacceptable and I refuse to allow myself to remain part of their dialogue.”

Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) played the key role in blocking Southers’s nomination since it was submitted in September. In placing a hold on Southers, a Los Angeles Police Department official who oversaw security at LAX, DeMint cited what he said were dangers that collective bargaining could pose to security operations.

"Americans deserve a leader at TSA with integrity and with an unwavering commitment to putting security ahead of politics,” DeMint said in a statement Wednesday. “Mr. Southers was never forthcoming about his intentions to give union bosses veto power over security decisions at our airports.”

After the Christmas Day bombing, the White House and Congressional Democrats hoped to use increased concerns about security to overcome DeMint’s hold and stage a vote on Southers’s nomination. However, Republicans argued that the White House showed little urgency earlier in the process when it took Obama nearly nine months to nominate Southers.

Southers’s nomination bogged down further earlier this month when seven Republican senators including John McCain of Arizona and Tom Coburn of Oklahomasent Obama a letter demanding further explanations for an inaccurate description Southers gave to Congress about episodes in the late 1980s involving database searches for criminal records on his estranged wife’s boyfriend.

Southers, who was an FBI agent at the time and was disciplined over the incident, initially told the Hill he asked a colleague in the San Diego police to do the checks. However, when an FBI report emerged saying Southers did the searches himself, he corrected his story and said his earlier recollection was mistaken.

The White House publicly stood by Southers during the flap and noted that the lawmaker whose questions uncovered the discrepancy, Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), signaled that she was satisfied with his explanation of the infractions.

“The President believes that Erroll Southers would have been an excellent TSA Administrator but understands his personal decision and the choice he has made,” White House spokeman Nicholas Shapiro said in a statement e-mailed to reporters. “Erroll Southers has had a distinguished 30-year interdisciplinary career addressing public safety and homeland security issues in academia, working SWAT and investigating terrorism and foreign counterintelligence at the FBI and for the Los Angeles World Airports Police Division. Southers was uniquely qualified for this job and it is with great sadness that the President accepted Southers' withdrawal.”

“The Senate could have had an open and transparent debate this week to approve Mr. Southers, but apparently answering simple, direct questions about security and integrity were too much for this nominee,” DeMint said after Southers’s withdrawal was announced Wednesday. “I hope the President will quickly put forward a new nominee that is fully vetted and that will put the safety of the American people first."

well this is just an incomplete and poorly written article: "used law enforcement resources to run a background check on his estranged wife's boyfriend. " This sentence implies this just happened ONCE! It happened over time, several times and then he LIED to Congress about whether HE actually did the snooping. As usual, these CLOWNS never take responsibility for their own behavior and RESENT being called to account for it...ergo the LIE! This crook and liar who abused his position as an FBI agent also had plans to UNIONIZE the TSA...GREAT IDEA! Add to that his belief (all over YOUTUBE) that the REAL problem in America was angry white people and people angry at the government...scarry scarry person...just another OBAMA TROLL. Thank you Jim DeMint

Thank you God and thank you Massachusetts and Keep it up People, do not rest until every Demorat is weeded from Washington DC and Obama is Impeached and tried for treason along with Axelrod, Emanuel and all his traitor thugs. We are in a fight to save our Country from Obama and George Soros, who are deliberately trying to destroy the US Dollar through debt and entitlement programs (including Health Care "Reform"), and Soros has positioned himself to make tons of money when this happens. To give you an idea of Soros's character, this is a man who denied his Jewish faith during the Holocaust, and then worked for the Nazis selling the personal possessions of his fellow Jews that were heading to the gas chambers. Their ultimate goal for the United States, in it's financial ruin is to push the US into a psuedo communist New World Order. Soros is also tied to liberal blogger Ariana Huffington so no surprise she is trying to manipulate public perception to benefit Obama. And Soros has also donated to ACORN and many media organizations that catapulted Obama into the White House. Obama, Axelrod, Emanuel, Soros and everyone in their orbit should be tried for TREASON for deliberately trying to destroy the US economy, overthrow our Constitution based government and push us into a One World Government.

MR SOUTHERS I APPRECIATE YOUR DECISION BECAUSE THE GOP WOULD TRY AND KILL YOU OVER PERSONAL MATTERS AND OUR PRESIDENT NEED A SQEEKY CLEAN TSA NOT TO GIVE THE GOP ANY AMUNITION. IT IS SAD THAT THE GOP APPOSES EVERYTHING OUR PRECIOUS PRESIDENT WHO IS FOR ALL PEOPLE, DO. PRESIDENT STAY STRONG WE THE PEOPLE SUPPORT YOU AND LOVE YOU.

Maybe he shouldn't have run that background check on his estranged wife's boyfriend. That showed vindictivenes and a history of abuse of power. Not qualities I want to see in a TSA official and certainly not an assistant secretary for the TSA.

Obviously Souther's could not bear the scrutiny of a Senate confirmation hearing and ducked out the back door. There is something here more than the unionization of TSA (God forbid the TSA body checkers get more protection than Civil Service already affords them!) works, perhaps the old girlfriend incidents were a bit more creepy than what we know so far which isn't much more than he mined some databases looking for dirt on a rival.

This guy Sothers was an idiot. Anyone that heard him speak recently was astounded by his ignorance and stupidity. He says that the greatest threat to America are White, Christain, Gun Owner Military-oriented people...Not the Islamic terrorists. A total hack who has the wrong focus and wrong priorities...just like this President and the nuts at the Southern Law Poverty insane asylum.

Obviously Souther's could not bear the scrutiny of a Senate confirmation hearing and ducked out the back door. There is something here more than the unionization of TSA (God forbid the TSA body checkers get more protection than Civil Service already affords them!) works, perhaps the old girlfriend incidents were a bit more creepy than what we know so far which isn't much more than he mined some databases looking for dirt on a rival.

This is the correct thing for this person to do. He above all people as law enforcement should be above reproach and his use of Law enforcement data bases for personal use is unacceptable. As to the Unions TSA should not be unionized in mass, however if they wish to join the unions that do exsist thats fine.